Beyond Here

Ok so I have been absent for a while because of a number of reasons that are best left unsaid. But posts will be more regular from now on. Atleast so I hope.... One of the books that was a recent New York Times #1 bestseller and is available on all travel aisles in bookstores is "1000 Places to See before you die" - supposedly very popular these days. So when I was browsing through the travel channel TV guide and found a show by the same name, I was all curious. In their own words about the show, the channel says - "1000 Places to See Before You Die chronicles the journey of a young couple - Albin and Melanie Ulle, who put their lives on hold to travel the world". Apparently they are getting an all expense paid trip to visit the places in the book over a period of 5 months.... That is definitely something I would love to do - put my life on hold and travel - but then always, there is my husband to bring me back to reality. Now coming to the main story (yeah all this...

Here are some random close-up shots of the fall colors at Yosemite. It was only last weekend that we went but it already seems like it was ages ago :-( The first one is my favorite.

Last weekend we travelled to Yosemite to see the fall colors. My online research showed that the peak fall color in the valley was likely to be for that particular weekend. And so I was all excited about the trip. To add to the fun, a couple of friends decided to join in too - the more the merrier. Before we go into the actual description of the trip, some background is essential. When I came to the US it was to the east coast which is home to some of the best fall colors. While I do not miss all the cold and snow from the east coast, the 2 things I do miss here in California are the spring flowers and the fall colors. So when my husband went back to school on the east coast, I would travel every fall to meet him in the hope of seeing some color. But of course he was always busy and so we never made the trip. To cut a long story short, it was after a span of 7 years that I was hoping to see fall again. We set off early morning (5 am - I absolutely insisted we leave early) and were insi...

My latest favorite place in the world is Lauterbrunnen. It is a beautiful valley near Interlaken. For most Indians, Interlaken is synonymous with Yash Chopra movies and classic Swiss scenery. But about 20 miles from Interlaken, is this quaint little town and valley called Lauterbrunnen and this place formed the base of our Swiss travel in the Berner Oberland area. While Interlaken boasts of all the touristy stuff, if you want to live close to the mountains and numerous waterfalls (close to nature as my mom would say), Lauterbrunnen is where you need to be. A small town, that leads to a beautiful valley, with waterfalls falling on either side. When we went out for our first walk on the valley floor, I stood at one point and counted the total number of waterfalls visible - the count was 11. Streams trickle down from anywhere and everywhere. My husband remarked - "This is much like Yosemite, but multiplied by 10'. Days in this place just seemed to vanish - there was so much to do...

The first week of September we visited Yellowstone National Park, the oldest and first national park of the United States. It was one of those trips that we had always wanted to do but just hadn't gotten around to. To say that Yellowstone is huge would be an understatement. The Grand Loop which is about 150 miles of road covers only 1/5th of the park. The region is diverse - meandering rivers, waterfalls, canyons etc. What it is most famous for, though, is that it is one of the most thermally active regions in US and probably the world. The place has a huge history of volcanic eruptions. And there are numerous hot springs, geysers, fumaroles, mud pots all across the park. Its not just the fuming earth that one sees. There is mud throwing up with fumes, looking like paint pots going plop, plop. There are rainbow colored hot water springs because of the silica deposits and thermophiles at the bottom of the springs. There are also the numerous geysers throwing up water hundreds of fe...

I have been absent for a while but thats because we were moving and travelling more and there was just so much to do. Well I am back... and hopefully will be regular, because there is so much to catch up on. And for those who have been bugging me about pictures from my Yellowstone trip, here's a teaser...with more to follow soon.

On a scenic drive from Luzern, we drove to the St. Gotthard pass. Here are some pictures from once we reached the pass. This is definitely a must-do drive if you have a car in the Luzern area and is an easy, day trip. It is dangerously scenic - we had to make sure that whosoever was driving was concentrating on the road and not on the mountains around.